Tuesday, April 21, 2015

What is the "Eurasian Union"? (Map)

The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, sometimes simply called the "Eurasian Union", was officially launched at the beginning of this year. Read on for a brief introduction to this major new regional organization, which you can expect to hear a lot more about in the coming months and years!

The Eurasian Economic Union's four current member countries, plus disputed territories officially or unofficially included in the common market. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this map by Keverich2. License: CC BY-SA

Eurasian Economic Union
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU, EAU, or EAEU) was officially launched on the 1st of January, 2015 by member countries Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan, with Kyrgyzstan awaiting membership next month. The goal of the union is to allow for the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor among the member countries.

The EEU is built upon less-extensive cooperation previously established in 2007
through the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and in
2012 through the Common Economic Space.

Shared Economy
The union has a population of over 170 million people and a GDP of nearly $2.5 trillion, making it the largest common market in the ex-Soviet region. Energy sources
constitute the strongest grounds for EEU cooperation. This is no
surprise, given that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan share over 20% of
the world’s gas resources and 16% of its oil, in addition to
being strong producers of electricity and holding large reserves of coal, steel, and
iron ore. According to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev,
over 100 agreements to develop a common oil and gas market are expected
to be signed in the EEU during 2015.

Iran, Argentina, Egypt, China and India have reportedly already expressed interest in establishing cooperation and creating a free trade zone with the EEU in the future. Recently,
Russia’s ambassador to the European Union (EU) proposed that the EU
renounce the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
with the United States to instead enter a partnership and establish a
free trade zone with the EEU.

Towards Greater Integration
Although the EEU is currently intended to be a purely economic cooperation block, the union is considered to be Russia’s most ambitious attempt at integrating the region that once formed part of the Soviet Union. Its creation has not been universally welcomed, with some outside obervers seeing the
integration process as a symbol of aggressive Russian policy,
particularly following Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, whose new government chose not to seek EEU membership.